Why California Schools “May” Have Qualified Librarians

Jaclyn Graham

Article:
Lambert, D. (2022, April 14). Where are all of California’s school librarians? EdSource. https://edsource.org/2022/where-are-all-the-school-librarians/670164

Summary: Teacher librarians have a unique role to play in the education of today's youth. Teacher librarians “positively impact student achievement at all grade levels” (Lambert 2022). They support student learning and foster curiosity. They teach information literacy, digital safety, research skills and providing quality reading materials that connect to classroom content and cater to student interest.  

But still, California schools “may appoint a librarian or librarians to staff the libraries provided they qualify as librarians.” (California Legislative Information, 1990). California schools have the option to hire and pay a qualified skilled teacher librarian or hire and pay a paraprofessional at a fraction of the cost. Because of this non obligatory California students are missing out. And with some of the lowest adult literacy rates in the country, it shows.

The wording in this section of the California Ed Code allows school districts more flexibility with staffing, and contributes to an unstable job market for potential teacher librarians. When budgets are robust teacher librarians are hired, but when funding dries up teacher librarian jobs are easily cut. Credentialed teacher librarians are pushed into classroom teaching or searching for positions elsewhere. Those aware of the optional role of teacher librarian in California schools may see committing time and money towards the extra credential as an unwise investment. This contributes to a low supply of new teacher librarians in the state.

Opinion and Evaluation: I write this as a high school library paraprofessional, afraid to lose their school's teacher librarian. Afraid that the students we now serve will lose the welcoming library that supports their curiosity and growth. Afraid that future students might be pushed into the world unprepared for the glut of information and misinformation. We write letters to our senators and assembly people, we show up to board meetings and every March we cross our fingers, hoping we won’t see any pink slips. This article offers an overview of the problem, but we really do need a solution.

California Legislative Information. (1990). CA Education Code § 18120. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=18120.#:~:text=18120

"Let's Do It!' - A New Approach to Collection Development

Anna Fenerty

Citation

Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2016). Collection Development and Collaborative Connection Development: Or, Curation2. Teacher Librarian, 43(4), 52–53.

Summary

The authors, Loertscher and Koechlin, discuss the progress of implementing Learning Commons in the school libraries and offer a list of tools and templates to help the librarians make the transitions. In 2015, the authors conducted a survey of 900 teacher librarians, which showed some progress in connection developments since most schools were shifting from exclusively traditional book and database collections by adding online resources. On the other hand, shifting from one-way library websites to participatory virtual spaces was still in the very beginning stages in most of the schools surveyed. The authors suggest approaching collection development with a new attitude; WE, librarians, teachers, and students have a collective responsibility “to curate the very best educational resources” together. All need to pitch in at the building, district, state, and national level to develop connections to community resources and OERs that benefit everyone involved.

Evaluation

A relevant and inspiring article that shows the current state of digital collections and trends in school libraries. The authors offer “hands-on” advice, tools, and templates to help school librarians transition into a leadership role to “mentor collaborative curation” of connections and participatory resources instead of building collections of “owned” resources that are constricted by individual and finicky budgets. Everyone can benefit from connected participatory collections. So, “Let’s do it!”

Web 2.0 School Librarian

Poser-Brown, Lora

Hallstrom, J. (2013). Building it together: Life as a virtual school librarian. Library Media Connection, 31(5), 22-23.

Reflection: The “Life as a Virtual School Librarian” article was intriguing. The article was written by Janet Hallstrom, a teacher-librarian in her fifth decade of librarianship. She discusses the similarities and differences between traditional library work and virtual library tasks. The primary difference is the abundance of information available for online libraries. A great quote in the article is “Because of the wealth of information, the virtual librarian is assured that she has something helpful for everyone.” However, this plentiful bounty offers a huge challenge in cultivation and collection for the librarian because of resource quality. Hallstrom also mentions the great Web 2.0 tools she offers her online patrons and assists them with.